FOR a while last Saturday it seemed as if Baywing had put up one of the novice chase times of this or any other season in winning the Grade 2 Towton Novices’ Chase by 22 lengths. Even after it became apparent that the amended race distance was not what was being stated by Wetherby’s Clerk of the Course, the time - which was 13.2s quicker than a useful hunter chase later on - looked distinctly useful.

I have a 151 timefigure for this effort and that would give Baywing a major chance in the National Hunt Chase. He has, however, raced only on soft/heavy going to date.

Whether or not form achieved in the mud will stand up at Cheltenham next month is likely to depend on conditions there. It can get testing at Prestbury Park, as the meeting on New Year’s Day reminded us, but just not very often in March these days. Timeform has only two of the last 47 Festival days run on ground softer than good to soft.

With that in mind, some of the performances at good-ground Musselburgh - where there were several valuable events at the weekend - are worth a second look.

Best of the lot was Diego Du Charmil’s 147 in winning the Scottish County Hurdle, a particularly strongly-run contest in which runner-up Dominada shaped even better than the result.

The following day, Lough Derg Spirit managed to clip a fraction off the course record (by my reckoning) in making all in the Scottish Supreme Novices’ Trial, for which he gets a healthy 143 timefigure. Forth Bridge was not quite so quick in winning the Scottish Triumph Hurdle Trial, but juveniles tend to lag behind novices, at least prior to Cheltenham, and his 131 timefigure is just 9lb behind the generational leaders Defi Du Seuil and Landofhopeandglory.